A wet, cold and windy bank holiday weekend concluded in sunshine for Round 2 of the 18ft Skiff Grand Prix yesterday.  Eight teams raced for the Holt Challenge plate in cold, wet and windy conditions for the most part.  Team Pica, the defending holders of the trophy, were given more to think about with new challenge coming from a variety of directions in the form of teams Ronstan and team LED.  On Saturday the bighting north easterly blew a consistent 14, gusting 16 to 17knots at times with some reasonable shifts making life challenging on a short windward leeward course with plenty of ragging the kite to make the downwind gate. 

The Australian 18ft skiff season finished last weekend, whilst on the other side of the world the new skiff season starts.  Six UK teams arrived at Stone Sailing Club in Essex for the first round of the UK Grand Prix.  On Saturday a mixed forecast contributed to a difficult rig choice with 2 of the 6 teams opting for smaller rigs.  In the first race  most teams had some time in the lead as others had a few swims, mainly due to the gusty conditions and rusty crew work.  Pica led for most of the course only to capsize on  the last downwind leg

The UK 18ft Skiff Grand Prix kicks off this weekend with the first of the four Grand Prix events at Stone Sailing Club. Seven boats have already confirmed participation for the first event.   So the series is due to pick up where it left off with the influx of new teams from 2011.  This season the European Grand Prix also comes to UK Shores in Plymouth at the end of September.  Other locations include Calshot on the Solent and a return to Sandbanks, Poole.  Read more about this years series ......